well-acted soul-transmigration story with one of the worst finale to date

Before diving into this, I'd like to say first that this show is an adaptation. The original material is a fairly popular webnovel, which tells a story about a outrageously loyal employee of one of the biggest fictional company in South Korea, Soonyang, who found himself transmigrated into the youngest grandson of the very company he worked for, Jin Do-jun just shortly after his death.

I was plenty excited for this show because I've always loved stories with rebirth & transmigration in the center due to its satisfying face-slapping laced with revenge type of story and to some extent, Reborn Rich didn't disappoint. The show clearly was confident with its thrice-weekly airing time, the casting line-ups, and it was fascinating seeing the rating rose higher and higher the more we dive into the show. I was afraid the show wouldn't be able to intrigue but I was wrong. From episode 2 onwards, the story gradually layered itself with step-by-step of how Do-jun tries to slowly steal Soonyang under his grandpa's nose, and eventually announced himself that he'd buy the company to his grandpa himself.

Some episodes are fillers, but some episodes are pure fun & smart battle-of-wits, polished as familiar as it could have been with the history of business in South Korea that I couldn't seem to drop the show whenever those episodes were on. Basically, if we're talking about pace & story, the show was pretty unstable on maintaining its tension. And those broken tension were usually caused by the (highly) unnecessary loveline, which I still thought as the most useless part of the show. Why?Because it felt like a different show altogether when these 'lovely' scenes appeared. In a story where revenge and political intrigue played a pivotal role, a love-line, personally for me, only served as a distraction for the main character themselves. It was not helping that the writer didn't know how to make the romance work (didn't even give the depth for both Min-young & Do-jun, and then suddenly they're dating????PLS), and how the director didn't have the right style to present the heartfluttering bits amidst the intense power battle between these Soonyang people. In others episodes, sometimes the pace was too slow and sometimes it turned less interesting, which turned out to be the way it was simply because the writer wanted to the satisfying meat in the next episode.

Seeing these patterns played out a couple of times made me realize; ah, the writer wasn't able to control the story to be as equally engaging each episode, and what was more surprising is when I was gradually made aware that despite keeping the main story intact, there were many details & points from the original materials left out to make the show adaptable for the drama format. It was less obvious at first, but the more we got near to the ending the more I realized the wrongness of the story which eventually cultivated into that stupid-ass conclusion which COMPLETELY betrayed the essence of the entire story with that one episode alone. It's an understatement to say that I'm disappointed. And I couldn't even imagine what the webnovel readers would feel seeing that clusterfuck ending.

You know...when you write an adaptation, you must know the original material well enough to be able to make out a more engaging story out of it. You have to know what fits into the format, what to include and what to miss, and what to keep in mind. Reborn Rich is essentially a soul-transmigration story. A unbelievable story where a supporting character gets a chance of living a main character's life after their death, and with their knowledge of the future and all, makes the main character's life theirs by the end of the story. The pattern is obvious, what you'll get from the story is also obvious. And during the time I've read countless rebirth & transmigration story, there hasn't been ONE that has a mind-boggling conclusion like this one. Why?Because it betrayed the value, the fun, the very reason why people still flocking to these stories. Hyun-woo's supposed to live out his life as Jin Do-jun because that's what we're all invested for to read and watch, his journey to the top. His journey to seek the power and make all Soonyang people pay for his death and everything. But to get that, there's gotta be a real & heavy consequences; he's in the place where he could never wish for and will never get for even if he's working himself to death for years. And he was also, if we're talking about the same show, obviously died in the first episode. His death is the key to the beginning of the story. It's because he was dead that he transmigrated. It was because he's gone that he had a revenge. It was because he's dead that we watched the whole ass show.

And now you're telling me he wasn't dead?

Then what about those 17 years of him living his life as Jin Do-jun?

Was by the end of the story the biggest victim of all happen to be Do-jun who got brutally used as a plot device and abandoned just like that because Yoon Hyun-woo was simply dreaming about those years in a span of a week?Because his head is apparently more solid than a rock stone even being shot in the head doesn't make him die?????????

Because the show is so all smart that all they could do is to use truck-of-doom repetitively and escaped all the consequences?????

What the fuck is this.

And more of the reason to not like this conclusion is because it betrayed the entire story of what was supposed to be an adaptation. Because the webnovel is sure as hell isn't played out like this. Because the scriptwriter of this show got fucking greedy and crossed the damn line they shouldn't have; they disrespect the entire webnovel. They disrespect the original material just because they could and just because they think the whole story is theirs to write. BUT IT FUCKING IS NOT. THIS IS AN ADAPTATION. THERE'S A LINE AND LIMIT TO NOT BE CROSSED OVER AND THAT CONCLUSION??????THAT'S NOT IT.

I was able to overlook the writer's stupid ass decision to change the subplot here and there, adding the unnecessary romance, or making the grandpa's death lame as fuck despite him being one of the powerful characters in the show. I could forgive alllll that. Because they didn't change the flow of the story. But the finale did. In more ways than we all could imagine. Because it showed that the creator of this show didn't understand what must be done to deliver a transmigration story. They didn't understand the genre. The respect and love for these works, and why we came to love these superficial stories that weren't realistically possible but served as a satisfying read every single time. And to think I was excited when I first heard about the show...........and now I'm just angry. Disappointed but angrier at how they managed make a mess of a story that could have been turned out really good. If possibe, I'd highly recommend watching it only until episode 15 (minus the last few minutes of the ending). The last episode is entirely different story that shouldn't have been a part of this show. Period.

Even if I had complains here and there about the plot and the story, in terms of acting, the whole show is nothing less than perfect. Everyone in Soonyang were all so good I had nothing to nitpick; they also had personalities and some performances stood out than the other. It was also the reason why I stick so long for the show. Lee Sung-min was just............amazing. Flawless. Best acting performances I've seen this year. I wish we could see more of his chemistry with Song Joong-ki's character but nonetheless he was still such a huge blast to watch. Kim Shin-rok was absolutely killing her role too, and the tension between Kim Nam-hee and Park Ji-hyun in every single scene they're in are deliciously impeccable. I love nearly all the performances from Soonyang family members. They're all solid and know how to maintain that special intensity between the scenes. The music was just okay (sometimes I loved it, sometimes I don't), and well after seeing the ending, I didn't think I'd have a high rewatch value for the show.

Overall, Reborn Rich is a show that has its ups and downs throughout the story, delivery an intense power struggle between family members of one of the biggest fictional company in South Korea. The original material itself is very solid, and the way the story followed and reflected into past years of real business industry in South Korea was new and refreshing too. Featured strong and powerful performances, I don't think there's a reason you wouldn't want to watch the show. At least until episode 15.

Lees verder